Uefa Cup round-up:Portsmouth's maiden European voyage may have already been over but two goals from Peter Crouch ensured they at least bade the Uefa Cup a fond farewell on a night when Aston Villa lost their unbeaten away record in Europe this season.
The England striker scored a quick-fire double just before the interval and Portsmouth not only successfully held on to their 2-0 lead but added to it in stoppage time with a header from Hermann Hreidarsson.
How the Fratton Park faithful wished Pompey had managed that against AC Milan three weeks ago.
Pompey's chances of qualifying from the group stages were ended by a 3-2 defeat by Wolfsburg, rendering tonight's match a dead rubber between the bottom two sides in the group.
The build-up was overshadowed by news the club had accepted a reported offer of £20million for midfielder Lassana Diarra from Real Madrid.
Diarra was unsurprisingly absent from Fratton Park as Portsmouth manager Tony Adams made six changes from the weekend defeat to Newcastle, with Sol Campbell rested and Jermain Defoe on the bench.
Portsmouth looked slick in attack but the number of wasted chances was beginning to be of some concern before Crouch finally reaped the dividends.
Mvuemba cut the ball back to Wilson, who floated another cross towards the far post and this time Crouch connected well with his downward header to put Portsmouth 1-0 up.
And within a minute, those early misses were completely forgotten as Crouch doubled the advantage with his first brace of the season.
Kanu tricked his way into the box with a mazy run - one of those where it seems the ball is glued to his boot - and when his shot was saved, Crouch pounced to slot home the rebound.
Portsmouth were cut open just after the hour when Heerenveen's half-time replacement Tarik Elyounoussi found himself clean through but dragged his low shot wide of the near post.
Crouch had another far-post chance that would have sealed his hat-trick but Vandenbussche closed him down well and smothered the header.
The match was petering out as a contest before Nadir Belhadj was fouled on the edge of the Portmouth box and, after a scuffle, Hreidarsson rose to head home Glen Little's free-kick in stoppage time.
Villa surrendered their unbeaten away record in Europe this season as a severely-weakened side were no match for Hamburg strikers Ivica Olic and Mladen Petric.
With qualification for the final 32 already assured, Villa manager Martin O'Neill included only three of the starting line-up from the 4-2 weekend win over Bolton in defenders Carlos Cuellar and Luke Young and midfielder Steve Sidwell.
Villa, who had Sidwell sent off in the closing stages, had to play second fiddle to Martin Jol's side once Petric had opened the scoring to pave the way for a double blast from Olic before a late consolation from Nathan Delfouneso.
Five Villa players in Gabriel Agbonlahor, Ashley Young, Martin Laursen, Gareth Barry and James Milner had not even made the trip to Germany with O'Neill keeping one eye on the hectic festive programme ahead.
And the Villa bench included four reserve team players in Barry Bannan, Ciaran Clark, Christopher Herd and Shane Lowry.
O'Neill would have been wary of the threat Petric and Olic were likely to pose in their club's final game before the winter break.
And the duo pulled the Villa centre-back pairing of Zat Knight and Cuellar, who looked particularly uncomfortable, all over the place with their movement and intelligent play.
Villa began the game with only Marlon Harewood operating up front and after 18 minutes a deadly piece of finishing from Petric put Hamburg in front after they had dominated the early exchanges.
Piotr Trochowski played a 50-yard ball which picked out the run of Petric who had managed to stay onside.
After 28 minutes Villa were found wanting at the back again as Olic doubled Hamburg's lead.
Marcell Jansen supplied the ball out to Dennis Aogo on the left flank and his cross into the danger area saw Olic get in front of Cuellar and angle his header past Guzan via the inside of a post.
The attacks towards the Villa goal were now coming on a constant basis.
In a rare attack by Villa, Gardner was only just too high with a volley from a couple of yards inside the Hamburg box.
Knight became the first Villa player to be yellow-carded after the break for a challenge on Petric.
Cuellar was at fault when Villa fell further behind after 56 minutes to Olic's second goal.
Gardner was lying injured in the Hamburg box after a collision with goalkeeper Frank Rost but referee Aleksei Nikolaev allowed play to continue.
In the space of a few seconds Mathijsen launched a 60-yard pass into the Villa half which Cuellar looked favourite to win but Olic nicked the ball away from him and drilled a low shot past Guzan.
Delfouneso scored a consolation goal eight minutes from time from a Moustapha Salifou centre.
A minute later Sidwell was given his marching orders for a second bookable offence when he tripped David Jarolim.
Tonight's Uefa Cup Results
Group E
AC Milan 2 Wolfsburg 2
Portsmouth 3 Heerenveen 0
Group F
Ajax 2 Slavia Prague 2
Hamburg 3 Aston Villa 1
Group G
Club Brugge 0 FC Copenhagen 1
St Etienne 2 Valencia 2
Group H
Deportivo La Coruna 1 AS Nancy 0
Feyenoord 0 Lech Poznan 1
